When your inauguration party is being snubbed by all and sundry, it doesn't do to be too fussy about the guest list.
So when a host of senior clerics and political luminaries announced they were boycotting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's endorsement ceremony to protest against his disputed re-election, his aides decided that past indiscretions would be no barrier to filling the empty seats.
Among those present at yesterday's event was Dariush Farziayi, aka Amoo Pourang (Uncle Pourang), presenter of a popular children's TV phone-in programme recently pulled from the schedules after a young caller revealed live on air that his toy monkey was named Ahmadinejad.
Farziayi was among a group of celebrities invited to make up the numbers after leading officials and opposition figures, including former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, as well as relatives of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declined to attend.
At least one senior adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who endorsed Ahmadinejad for a second term – and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading reformist candidate who claims the June election was stolen from him, were also absent.
In their place was a non-political list of figures from the sporting and entertainment world, including Iran's national football team coach, Afshin Ghotbi, an Olympic gold medal-wining weightlifter nicknamed the "Iranian Hercules", Hossein Rezazadeh and several actors.
A state TV presenter, Iman Merati, was forced to shut his blog after receiving more than 2,000 abusive messages – many of them obscene – from respondents furious over an interview last weekend with two jailed opposition figures, Mohammad Ali Abtahi and Mohammad Atrianfar, in which they "confessed" to having falsely called Ahmadinejad's re-election fraudulent.
The two had earlier read a confession at a show trial involving more than 100 detained reformists.
0 comments:
Post a Comment